What The XS, XS Max And XR Are Actually Like

You might have heard that there was a big announcement earlier this month at the Apple campus.

- Benjamin Kerry & Gavin Lenaghan

ALL OF THE KEY DETAILS ABOUT THE NEW PHONES

You might have heard that there was a big announcement earlier this month at the Apple campus. The new Apple Watch Series 4 was confirmed, iOS12 was officially launched, Homepods were given a big update and, oh yes, three new iPhones – the XS, XS Max and XR – were announced. But what are the latter three actually like to use?

Although many of the most important details about the new phones leaked ahead of the presentation, plenty of information came forth in the keynote itself for Apple fans to unpack.

This served to raise a number of vital questions, including… how do these phones actually feel and perform when they are in the user’s hand? Do they fare as well as advertised, and is it worth upgrading to any of them from your existing iPhone?

THE ESSENTIALS

First, let’s give you the lowdown on the prices of these much-anticipated devices. The iPhone XS and XS Max will start at $999 and $1099 respectively, with the XR coming in at a more manageable, but still premium $749.

The XS looks great, as you might expect as a basic requirement for any member of the iPhone range. It has a 5.8-inch Super Retina OLED display, while the Max version comes in with a giant 6.5-inch Super Retina OLED screen, making it the real big brother of the iPhone X family.

The resolution for the XS is 2436x1125 – 2688x1242 for the XS Max – with 458 PPI for both, and comes with Apple’s True Tone display technology that was first seen in the iPad Pro and MacBook Pro range earlier this year. It has a six-channel light sensor that subtly adjusts the onscreen white balance to match the color temperature of the light around, so that the images on the display look as natural as possible.